5 Common Marketing Mistakes to Avoid At All Cost

Most small business owners are clueless about marketing. No one has ever taught them the right way to market their business, so they simply copycat what their competitors are doing and hope for the best.

Unfortunately, doing what other people do normally gets you the same results everyone else is getting.  And since most businesses in most industries do nothing more than copy what their competitors are doing, there’s no wonder that most businesses fail, or hardly get by.

I want you to make a huge return on your marketing investment and I want your business to succeed.  So, I’m going to discuss the top 5 marketing mistakes made by small business owners as I see it.

Mistake # 1: Not Defining Their Target Market

Not everyone is a prospect for your business, product or service.  Smart business owners clearly identify their target market BEFORE they do any type of advertising.  They study their best customers, or ideal customers, and focus on finding ways of reaching more people with similar demographics.

Mistake # 2: Not Using a Multi-Step Sales Process

Most of your advertising dollars will be wasted if you only advertise trying to sell what you have to offer.  You see, most people who see your ads won’t be ready to buy your product or service at that exact moment in time.  

That’s why you need to focus on generating leads first, and then use a multi-step selling process.  For instance, place an ad to generate leads, and then send postcards, emails, direct mail and telemarketing to those leads over a consistent period of time.  That is much more effective way to sell than to focus on the low hanging fruit.

Mistake # 3: Not Marketing to Their Current and Former Customers

Your single greatest potential income stream is your current and former customers.  Make sure you spend at least 50% of your marketing budget focusing on advertising to your current and former customers.  It’s a lot easier to sell a new product or service to an existing customer than it is to go out and find a new customer.

Mistake # 4: Not Having a Clear Unique Selling Proposition

What makes your business different? Why should people do business with you instead of one of your competitors? You need to figure out the answer to these questions and you need to make sure you share the answers in your advertising messages.

Mistake # 5: Not Using Direct Response Marketing

Trying to brand your business like other big businesses do is a big mistake. Instead of putting your ads in newspapers and magazines where most of the folks are not part of your target market, you need to focus on advertising in venues that are read, watched, or listened to by people exclusively in your target market.  For example, if you have a lawn care business, you want to focus on advertising to home owners in your local area, not people who own condos or rent.  Does that make sense?

Final Thoughts

Of course, there are many other marketing mistakes that small business owners make, but these are the most common mistakes, as I see it. If you want to get better results in your business, it’s up to you to study marketing.  

You need to learn everything you can about lead generation, sales funnels, front end and back ends sales, multi-step selling and direct response advertising.  Any money spent learning these topics will be money well spent.

What are your thoughts? What do you think are the most common marketing mistakes made by small business owners? Send me an email and let me know.

About the Author

Chuck Holmes is a Certified Small Business Coach, author, network marketer and treasure hunter. He lives in sunny Florida with his wife, Rachel.